In the Depths of Coffee
by Julie Kay
Summary: Another J/C story, slightly different from the rest. ;)
1. Getting Away

*~* Disclaimer *~* You've probably read about a thousand of these before, but let me re-instate it all for you. I don't own these characters, they belong to Paramount and TPTB, but the story is mine. Of course, if TPTB took a hint, then this story really wouldn't be needed. But then the rest of the J/C authors and myself would be out of a job. . . anyway! Does that about cover everything?  
  
*~* Author's note *~* This story is entered in Bat'leth Wielding Furby's Coffee House Brew contest under the white coffee category. Thanks to Alexia for actually doing this contest in the first place, I know you're busy! Feel free to go to her site and vote for my story, or read the others and vote for your favorite! Although the voting won't start until April 13th, the address is: http: //www.members.tripod.com /batlethwieldingfurby /id62.htm . Also, all the medical terms used are real ones used in different Star Trek series, no matter how long and ridiculous they seem. I'm serious, you can look them up at the official Star Trek site. Lastly, please feel free to review, no matter what! :D  
  
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Kathryn Janeway set down the report on her desk yawned tiredly as she leaned back in her chair. Her ready room seemed to get smaller and smaller with the larger amount of time she spent in it, going over report after report. It seemed like all she had been doing for the past six years was creating, receiving, and reading reports. She yawned again as the chime sounded, politely asking for entrance.  
  
"Come in," she commanded in mid-yawn, covering her mouth as her first officer crossed over the threshold. Chakotay smiled at her, but shook his head at her stubbornness, letting her know a lecture was coming.  
  
She held up her hand before he could say anything. "I know, I know. I shouldn't say up so late, read so many repots, and I need to cut down on my coffee intake. Does that about sum it up?" Kathryn said good-naturedly.  
  
"Almost," Chakotay sat down in one of the chairs and leaned forward, resting his hands on the desk. "You need a break. I've taken it up with Tuvok, and we both believe that you should be on the next away mission."  
  
"Ganging up on me, are you?" Kathryn considered for a moment, then decided that she would enjoy an away mission after being cooped up for so long. Chakotay kept talking, not thinking that she would give in so easily.  
  
"Kathryn, I really think that you need to take a break, and I'm willing to take it up with the Doctor if necessary." He looked at her squarely. "And you know I'll do it."  
  
"No need," Kathryn put up her hands in mock surrender. "I agree. I haven't been on an away mission for ages."  
  
"All right, here's your mission," Chakotay handed her a report on a nearby planetoid, seeming slightly surprised at her rapid agreement.  
  
"Didn't you just tell me not to read so many reports?" she teased him gently as she took it. "Class M planet, lots of greenery, probably a good place to stock up on supplies. What's all this brown?"  
  
Chakotay shook his head. "We don't know yet. Harry doesn't think that we'll find out exactly what it is until the away team scans it. Pack your equipment, we'll be there in about three hours." He gave her a dimpled grin.  
  
"Aye sir!" she replied with a smile. 


	2. Liquid

*****On the planet's surface*****  
  
The team of four materialized on a grassy hillside not unlike a park on Earth. Looking around, Kathryn could see many trees and unfamiliar plants growing all around. Smiling slightly, she realized that she had been looking forward to this away mission more than she would admit to anyone, especially Chakotay. The away team she had chosen to take consisted of Neelix, the Bajoran Tal Celes, and Jason Sai, a young ensign wearing a red command uniform.  
  
"Captain," Ensign Jason Sai pointed behind her, where the rest of the team was gazing. Turning around quickly, she saw a huge monument that looked to be made of rock, surrounded by the dark brown she had spotted from Voyager's earlier scans. Kathryn smiled to herself. This was exactly the kind of puzzle she was looking for to take her mind off work. Too bad Chakotay wasn't here, he would have loved to study it.  
  
"All right, Neelix and Tal, I want you to work on finding any plants that Neelix thinks could be helpful to the ship. Jason, you're with me."  
  
As Ensign Celes and Neelix went off to gather plant samples, she started towards the rock sculpture, with Ensign Sai trailing closely behind. When they were about 50 meters from the statue, a sudden wind kicked up. Struggling against the air whizzing by them, Kathryn and Sai worked their way close to the brownish-black area near it. Taking out his tricorder, Ensign Sai scanned the area as the sky started to darken.  
  
"It's a liquid!" he exclaimed, "and it's really deep. I'd say it goes down nearly to the planet's core. It's also extremely hot."   
  
"What about the rock?" Janeway asked, showing the Ensign that she trusted his scans by not taking out her own tricorder.  
  
"I'm not reading much about it," Sai said, concentrating on his tricorder as the wind wildly whipped his hair around his face. "It's just a normal mineral rock. I'll convey my readings to Voyager."  
  
"Good idea." Kathryn walked a few yards closer to the pool of liquid, leaving Sai behind her to finish his scans.  
  
"I've finished the transfer Capt-" Sai's words were cut off as a line of light came from the sky and made directly for his active tricorder.  
  
"Ahhh!" he yelled as the thing resembling a lightning bolt went through him. He collapsed to the ground.  
  
"Ensign!" Kathryn yelled hurrying back to him. "Janeway to Voyager, two to beam directly to sickbay!" 


	3. Losing an Arguement

Kathryn felt the transporter take them and whisk them away to the ship. After re-materializing in sickbay, she quickly moved away from the injured Ensign, allowing the medical staff to do their job.  
  
"Janeway to the Bridge, get the rest of the away team back up here! There's some sort of magnetic storm going down below," Kathryn immediately called out, touching her comm badge.  
  
"Harry," she heard Chakotay say over the channel.  
  
"I'm sorry, Captain, but the magnetic storm has worsened, and it's interfering with transport. I can't get a lock!" Harry said, frustrated. "I also can't hail them!"  
  
Kathryn pressed her lips together while she thought. "Where are they now?"  
  
She felt Harry shaking his head over the comm channel. "I can't get a clear reading, but it looks like they may be going toward that rock and lake you were studying."  
  
"That's where Sai was injured, they could be hurt as well," Chakotay's voice calmed Kathryn down slightly. She thought rapidly.  
  
The Doctor approached her side, head downcast, and shut his tricorder. "I'm sorry Captain, there was nothing I could do."  
  
Kathryn lowered her head as well. "I'll take a shuttle," she decided, struggling to concentrating on her two alive away team members. Knowing that her bridge officers would protest, she closed the channel.  
  
Kathryn moved hastily through the hallway, knowing that even a few moments could mean the difference between life and death for her two officers down on the surface.  
  
Ignoring a passing turbolift that hissed open as she passed, Kathryn pressed on, only then noticing someone following her. She stopped and turned around to face the second part of Voyager's command team.  
  
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, turning back around and continuing her quick pace to the shuttlebay.  
  
"My job," Chakotay replied, matching her pace.  
  
"I don't have time for this, Chakotay-" Kathryn started, but he interrupted her.  
  
"Neither do I, Kathryn. This is another thing that I should have mentioned in my lecture, you're always racing off without a thought for your own safety. But not this time. I'm coming with you, and even Tuvok agrees with me."  
  
"Why does Tuvok always seem to agree with you when the situation involves my health or safety?" Kathryn asked, slightly annoyed. "Never mind, don't answer that."  
  
Chakotay said nothing, only lead the way into the shuttle bay and over to the Delta Flyer. Kathryn made no further protests, knowing it would just take time, and that she would lose the argument anyway.  
  
Chakotay sat in the pilot's seat and started the preparations for launch as Kathryn took the science station. They exited the shuttlebay and flew towards the seemingly innocent planet below. 


	4. Planned Trajectory

**********On the planet**********  
  
Neelix puffed as he attempted to catch up with the lean Bajoran. "Ensign!" he shouted loudly, and she obligingly turned around. As he caught up with her, Neelix sat down hard, panting. "Just. . . just. . . give me a minute," he said, regaining a bit of his breath.  
  
Tal smiled slightly at the out of breath Talaxian, and apologized for walking so fast. "It's just that we lost contact with Voyager at the same time as the Captain and Ensign Sai. I want to make sure nothing happened to them." She squatted down to his level and offered him a flask from her equipment. "Water?"  
  
Neelix nodded and reached for it, stopping as his eyes widened at something behind Tal. She twisted around to catch sight of the Delta Flyer angling straight down towards the bubbling black liquid and the bulky rock in the middle of it. Whipping out her tricorder she took scans of the shuttle.  
  
"I don't think that's their planned trajectory!" Tal yelled. "The magnetic particles in the air are blinding the shuttle's sensors, in a way that couldn't have been anticipated. They're going to crash!"  
  
She and the Talaxian could do nothing but watch as the shuttle dipped slightly and rotated to narrowly avoid the colossal rock, but crashed directly into the boiling fluid surrounding it. 


	5. Trapped

**********In the Delta Flyer**********  
  
Chakotay attempted to open his eyes but found they were too heavy. He couldn't sit up either, but realized that he was sprawled out on the deck of the Delta Flyer. The magnitude of pain he was feeling throughout his body was almost worse than being tortured by a Cardassian. Making an enormous effort to get up, Chakotay winced involuntarily as a sharp flash of pain coursed through his arm. He ached all over but he shoved away the pain as he remembered the accident and who had been on board with him.   
  
"Kathryn!" he cried sitting up hastily and glancing frantically in all directions, trying to ignore the searing pain in his head.  
  
"Shh. It's all right, Chakotay, I'm here." Gentle hands pushed him back down to the ground and he collapsed willingly. Kathryn was safe.  
  
"Of course I'm safe," she replied, with him only then realizing that he had spoken aloud. "Here's something for the pain."  
  
He felt a slight pressure on his neck, then a coolness swept through his body, winning every battle against the pain. Sitting up more slowly this time, his dark eyes rose up to meet her blue ones that seemed to be sparkling with unreleased tears. . . but no, that was impossible.  
  
Kathryn broke his gaze before he could make certain. "I thought I'd lost you," she said to the floor. "You were just lying there, so still. . ." Shaking her head as if to clear it, she looked up again, the command mask sliding into place. "Let's see if we can get out of here, ok?"  
  
"Sounds good," Chakotay didn't let her realize how he hated it when she closed herself off from him. Taking her offered hand, he stood up and took his place at the console.  
  
"It looks like we missed the monument and dove straight into this slush," Chakotay said as he gawked at the black liquid swirling around the shuttle, then shifting his gaze back to his station. "All primary and secondary systems are offline. I'm guessing that happened when we hit the surface of this stuff."  
  
"This 'slush' as you call it, Commander, happens to be what keeps me going through the day."  
  
Turning around, Chakotay caught a fleeting glance of a mischievous smile upon her face. He slightly tipped his head at her, asking her what she meant without words.  
  
"It's coffee."  
  
Chakotay felt his eyes widening in astonishment. "Coffee?!" he half asked, half demanded.  
  
"Take a look," Kathryn scooted over to make room for him at her console.  
  
Peering over her shoulder, he shook his head in amazement. "How do you do it, Kathryn? The replicators are offline, and you still have your coffee." He turned his head sideways, only then realizing how close together their heads were. Kathryn still hadn't noticed.  
  
"The problem isn't having the coffee, it's getting to it. With the transporter shot, I can't even have any," Kathryn said laughingly, turning and caught her breath as she realized how close he was. "The bad news is, we haven't got much power, and life support is only barely functioning. I'd estimate only about an hour of air left," she ended worriedly.  
  
"Well, that should be plenty of time for Voyager to find us and beam us up."  
  
She moved away slightly. "You don't know how deep down we could be, and the sensors aren't working. Before Ensign Sai was. . .killed, he took scans of this pit that we're stuck in. Apparently, it goes down nearly to the planet's core. There's no way that Voyager would be able to transport us out if we're that deep."  
  
Chakotay sighed and gazed at her in slight frustration. "Do we have any chance of repairing the shuttle with the supplies we have?"  
  
Kathryn's sky blue eyes met his obsidian ones. "No," she said softly. "There's nothing useful in the cargo holds or anywhere else."  
  
Turning away from her, Chakotay leaned his forehead against the opposite panel and banged his hand gently on it. How was he going to survive this? Stuck in this enclosed space with the woman he loved, with no repairs or anything else to do to keep his mind occupied. And the possibility of having her die in here with him? It was unthinkable.  
  
Her hand found its way to his shoulder and squeezed it gently. "It's all right Chakotay, we'll get through this. We always do," Kathryn tried to reassure him.  
  
He nodded, not wanting her to know how deeply he was affected. "We're trapped by the one thing you love most," Chakotay joked with her, to take her mind as well as his off of their current situation.  
  
Behind him, Kathryn opened her mouth to betray her greatest kept secret, that there was something she loved more than coffee, but closed it before she could speak. Instead, she just patted his shoulder. "I'm going to go in the back. Want to join me?"  
  
"Not right now," Chakotay declined, turning to face her. "I have a lot of thinking to do."  
  
Kathryn was too busy being glad that she would be alone with her own jumbled thoughts to notice the slight significance in his words. She smiled softly at him, then moved towards the back if the shuttle. 


	6. Last Minute Thoughts

Kathryn moved the biobed out and sat down, kicking her feet. Who would have thought that she would be stuck under gallons of her favorite drink, and perhaps even to die because of it. And to be here with Chakotay, of all people. She knew that he loved her, and that she loved him back, but she had placed a little but powerful word in the way of any possible relationship. Protocol. How deeply she hated that word, and that she always clung to it, the way a Malcorian child would cling to his mother.   
  
Kathryn was too proud to admit even to herself that she was scared of what would happen if she ventured into this unknown with Chakotay by her side. She was afraid that she would love him too much, and then he would be taken from her. Like Justin. Like Mark. The two men to whom she had been engaged, with both the relationships leading to disastrous conclusions; Justin's death and Voyager being tossed into the far end of the Delta Quadrant, nearly as far as she could get from Mark. Kathryn sighed loudly, millions of thoughts dancing in her head. Unbeknownst to her, Chakotay had come in and was regarding her softly, having resolved his own thoughts in the time they had been apart.  
  
"Mind if I come in?"  
  
Kathryn started almost guiltily for her thoughts before realizing that there was no possible way that Chakotay would know what she was thinking. "No, of course not."  
  
Chakotay moved further into the tiny shuttle room and pulled himself up on the biobed next to her. The two sat in a companionable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Kathryn addressed the main issue that both of them were thinking about.  
  
"Chakotay, do you think that Voyager will find us in time?"  
  
"I don't know," he replied uncertainly. "But we both know that the likely hood of our being rescued has diminished. We only have about 10 minutes of air left, and Voyager should have found us long before now. There must be something that is preventing them from finding us."  
  
"And with only partial sensors, there's no way we can figure it out and try to help," Kathryn finished for him. Sighing, she reflected on her ship and crew. "I wonder how the crew would do without us, under Tuvok's command."  
  
"They've done it before," Chakotay responded. "While we were on New Earth."  
  
Kathryn could feel what topic was going to come up next, and not wanting to talk about it, defused it. "Let's not talk about us right now."  
  
"Then when will we talk about it?" Chakotay said frustrated. "We can very well die in here, Kathryn, and we may never have another opportunity. We both know we have feelings for one another, but why won't you admit it?"  
  
This topic was one that Kathryn truly did not want to talk about. But as she gazed at his insistent face, she knew she wouldn't be able to get away with anything less than the truth. Taking a deep breath, Kathryn let it all come out in a rush. "In truth, Chakotay, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of what will happen if I allow myself to love you fully, and not just from a distance."  
  
"So you do have feelings for me," Chakotay couldn't hide his relief that he wasn't going off on a tangent.  
  
"How could you doubt that? But I can't risk anything. What if you-"  
  
"With a little risk, life isn't worth living, Kathryn," Chakotay protested, cutting her off. "You've got to take a chance, to jump beyond your personal safety net to be able to explore new places, new people. Otherwise, you'll end up with nothing but the daily routine, the same dull happenings day after day. You became a Starship Captain because you wanted to explore. Well, here's your chance to explore not just space and it's limitations, but yourself, your feelings. And you'll get to know me as well."  
  
"Warning. Life support failure in five minutes," the computer informed them.  
  
"This is pointless," Kathryn said to avoid answering his statement, slightly thankful for the distraction the ghastly alert caused. "We aren't going to be rescued Chakotay. We're going to be drowned in coffee, put to our watery graves. I don't have to make this decision."  
  
"Are you so convinced about that? Our crew is resourceful. They still stand a chance of getting us out of this. . .this. . ." words failed him.  
  
"This lake of coffee," Kathryn supplied for him, as the computer warned them that three minutes of life support was remaining.  
  
"Lake of coffee!" he said, hammering his hand on the biobed. "What I really want to know, Kathryn, is that if we are rescued, what would happen? Would we be going back to the way things were, even when we both know our true feelings for one another?"  
  
Kathryn fought with her conflicting emotions, wrestling with an answer. "No," Kathryn said softly, but with deep meaning. "I couldn't do that. If," she said slowly, "we are brought back to Voyager, I will stop hiding behind the ship's protocol."  
  
"Why?" Chakotay said ruthlessly, wanting to have the reassurance that she wasn't just saying that, ignoring the computer voice that warned of the life support failure.  
  
"I realize that if I don't at least give our relationship a chance, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. And that wouldn't make me a very good Captain. I would think back to all the times that I could have tried to have a relationship with you, and hated myself for missing every one of them. But if we go into a relationship now and it doesn't work out, then at least we made the attempt. And if it does, then I'll no longer have anything to regret."  
  
"Thank you," Chakotay finally said, touched by her words.  
  
"Warning," the computer spoke up. "Life support failure in one minute."  
  
The realization that this could be their final moments in the world of the living suddenly stuck Kathryn. Chakotay saw the realization in her eyes and knew instinctively what she was thinking. All he knew was that he wanted to relieve her of that pain.   
  
Leaning over instinctively, Chakotay closed the distance between them and kissed her lightly. Kathryn felt herself responding in a way she never had before, and kissed him back, deeper and more passionately. Chakotay's strong arms were around her waist, and they scooted her closer to him until their hips were touching. Her hands were strung around his neck, pulling him to her. The kiss ended quietly, with their foreheads leaning against the other's as they attempted to regain their breath.  
  
"Warning," the computer intoned. "Life support failure in 15 seconds."  
  
They pulled back slightly from one another, their bodies still intertwined. Kathryn could see nothing but acceptance and happiness in Chakotay's eyes. She smiled at him. If they were to die, they would do it together. Kathryn stretched out fully on the biobed and brought Chakotay down with her. He held her tightly against him, and Kathryn didn't protest in the least. Her hands were on his chest and her head on his shoulder as she gazed at him for the last time before closing her eyes and allowing the lack of oxygen in her lungs to make her fall into what seemed to be a deep sleep, but with no return. 


	7. Everyone to Sickbay

*****On Voyager*****  
  
"I've got it," Harry said, halfway shocked that he had actually managed to find the shuttle with the ridiculously slow search pattern that nearly everyone on the ship had been engrossed with for the last few hours.  
  
"Where?" B'Elanna said quickly, praying that it wasn't too deep for the transporter to reach. Picking up Neelix and Ensign Jenkins had strained the transporter to maximum, and the engineering teams had been making quick repairs in hopes of finding the shuttle within the murky black depths of coffee. Unfortunately, the coffee had proved to somehow mask the signature of the Delta Flyer, making the search much more complicated.  
  
"Search grid 1138, coordinates 449 mark 1."  
  
"The transporters should make it that far if the repairs are complete and we tie the transporter beam into the main deflector," B'Elanna kept a running commentary of the situation.  
  
"Bridge to Transporter room. Have you completed the repairs?" Tuvok asked, his voice betraying no emotion.  
  
"Nearly, sir," the voice of Lt. Carry answered him. "They should be coming online relatively soon."  
  
"Relatively soon won't be good enough, Joe, it seems like the Flyer has taken some pretty heavy damage," Tom said over the open channel.  
  
"Just from hitting that puddle of coffee?" Harry said incredulously.  
  
"You're forgetting how hot it is. We've got full transporters, Harry, it's up to you," B'Elanna said, glancing up for a moment, then looking back down to monitor her engineering console. Tom nodded to Harry in reassurance from his position at the helm.  
  
"I've got a relative lock on the two of them, I'm trying to get a better one. . ." Harry reported, concentrating.  
  
"Their life-support system is offline!" Tom cried out in alarm. "Just get them out of there!"  
  
Harry shook his dark-haired head. "I'm trying." After a moment of silence, he exclaimed ecstatically, "I've got them! They're in sickbay."  
  
Tuvok stood up immediately. "Mr. Paris, you have the bridge."  
  
"I'll come too," B'Elanna said.  
  
"I need to go to sickbay as well. The Doctor may need my help," Tom protested as he left his station.  
  
Harry had been trying to come up with a good excuse for coming as well. When he couldn't find one, he simply entered the crowded turbolift along with the rest of the senor staff. "Ensign Kamar, you have the Bridge," he managed to say to the officer at tactical before the turbolift doors nearly shut on his nose.  
  
"But sir, I-" Kamar started to say nervously, but realized it was no use. Looking around the deserted Bridge, he raised an eyebrow at this opportunity. Sauntering down to the Captain's chair, he slowly lowered himself down.  
  
"Hmm, I could used to this," he said as he leaned back against the headrest. Turning slightly sideways, he put his feet up, and dozed off. 


	8. Winners

The senor staff minus the two commanding officers made it to sickbay in a record time, even before the Doctor had gotten the couple onto biobeds.  
  
Tom, who had walked in first, came to a dead halt at the sight of the bodies Captain and Commander on the floor lying intertwined like the lovers they should have been, but never were.  
  
"They're not breathing, and I'm not reading any heart beats!" the Doctor exclaimed, and shot a hasty glance at Tom. "Help me get them to biobeds!" he slightly reprimanded him.  
  
Tom shot into action, gently prying the two apart while Harry and B'Elanna grabbed the stretchers that would transfer the Captain and Commander onto the biobeds without jolting them.  
  
"2 CC of netinaline!" the Doctor ordered.  
  
"Netinaline? That's used for bringing people from the dead!" Tom exclaimed.  
  
"They're close enough, Mr. Paris!" the EMH snapped back in his worry for his patients. "Then set up a hyperencephalogram to record their brain waves. They were down there without oxygen for at least seven minutes."  
  
The rest of the bridge crew could only stand and watch helplessly as the two medical officers walked back and forth between Kathryn and Chakotay, taking continuous scans and injecting both with different dosages of medication.  
  
"I've got a heart beat!" Tom said joyfully. "The brain wave scans are also registering brain activity in the Captain."  
  
The Doctor hurried over. "She's coming around. Give her 2 CC of morphenolog for the pain. What about the Commander?"  
  
Tom shook his head dejectedly. "Nothing yet."  
  
"20 CC hyperzine," the Doctor said hastily, holding out his hand for the hypospray. Injecting Chakotay's neck, he picked up his tricorder again as Tom helped Kathryn to a sitting position.  
  
"Chakotay!" Kathryn nearly went to pieces when she saw the man she had finally admitted that she loved lying motionless.  
  
"It's all right, Captain," Tom attempted to reassure her as she pushed past him to Chakotay's side, grasping one of his limp hands.  
  
"Don't die on me, Chakotay, not now," she implored him, even with the knowledge that there was no way he could hear her.  
  
"It's not working," the Doctor said to himself, absorbed in his work and not knowing the effect of his words.  
  
Kathryn paled noticeable and grasped his hand tighter, her lips moving with unintelligible words, but seeming less panicked.  
  
"Inoprovalene!" the Doctor ordered Tom. "15 CC."  
  
Tom slapped the medication into his waiting palm. After injecting the Commander, the Doctor's face showed no emotion. "Upping to 40 CC," he said as his nimble fingers called up the dosage on the hypospray. "Going to 55 CC," he said a moment later, after nothing happened.  
  
Kathryn bit her lip, waiting for any sign from the Doctor, and listening intently to the tricorder's hum. After finishing his scan, the computer program shut his tricorder slowly, shaking his head.  
  
"I'm sorry, Captain. There is nothing more I can do."  
  
She simply looked at him, and when he broke her gaze, she moved them down to look at her second in command, gazing at their entangled hands.  
  
Tom's heart went out to her, standing there like a lost child not knowing what to do. But this was Captain Janeway, the one who had saved all of their lives countless times, who knew exactly what to do.  
  
"Give him 80 CC," she said quietly.  
  
"Captain, its-" the Doctor made an effort to protest, but she cut him off.  
  
"I am still the Captain of this vessel, and that is a direct order that you will obey."  
  
Taking the still filled hypospray back in his hand, the Doctor injected him with the ordered dose. Tom ran his tricorder down the length of Chakotay's unmoving body, then checked the brain scan.   
  
"Wait a minute. . . I think I've got something!" Tom cried elatedly.  
  
Chakotay inhaled deeply, nearly gasping as the high dosage awakened him from his lifeless state. His hand clutched Kathryn's as he opened his eyes and tried to sit up, but was halted by Tom, the Doctor, and Kathryn, who had flung her arms around him and pushed him back down by kissing him deeply.  
  
Chakotay had no protests, but Tom's eyes nearly bulged from his head at this unexpected twist. After he had regained his senses, Tom smiled widely, glad that the command team had finally gotten the hint. All it had taken was a shuttle accident and lake full of coffee.  
  
Kathryn kissed Chakotay, a kiss that drifted towards new times together, and a sharing of new experiences. It was also a promise of commitment and love, and a dream for a happily ever after.   
  
The two didn't even notice when Tom moved over to the sickbay console and start calling up data on the 'K & C' betting pool. This pool was the largest and most steadily growing of all the bets Tom had running, and it looked like it was about to pay off for someone.  
  
"Commander Chakotay!" Tom said, startling the two and breaking them apart. "You've won the betting pool."  
  
"What?" Chakotay said, still groggy.  
  
"Congratulations, Chakotay," Kathryn said, surprising everyone. "I put in all my bets for a later date."  
  
"Well, it looks like I've got plenty of extra rations now. A cup of coffee?" he asked Kathryn with a slightly roguish grin on his face.  
  
"No thanks! I think I've all the coffee I can handle for one day," Kathryn smiled back at him.  
  
Tom looked startled. "Harry, you won!"  
  
"Won what? I thought the Commander won the betting pool," the young Ensign said, confused.  
  
"Not that betting pool! The betting on the day that Captain Janeway would refuse a cup of coffee." Tom was amazed to see two of his largest betting pools paying on the same day.  
  
"I did?" Harry said in disbelief.  
  
"You sure did, Starfleet," B'Elanna ribbed him. "Come on. You can buy me dinner."  
  
"What about me?" Tom said pitifully as everyone laughed.  
  
"You can come too, I suppose," B'Elanna said with fake distain, then grinned. "Let's go before this Klingon gets hungry enough to eat the two of you!"  
  
"Come on Tuvok, I'll buy you a drink," Harry said, spreading his newfound wealth with everyone.  
  
Tuvok agreed, but Tom suspected it was mainly because he wished to give the Captain and Commander some time to themselves, not because he wanted a drink.  
  
The four officers left to eat and to spread the good new of the command team's recovery while the Doctor finished checking them.  
  
"You're free to go, but you are both to take at least a day off. I'm not asking for anything else, because I know you won't listen to me if I add more time," the Doctor said, having learned that from experience. The couple nodded their agreement, then exited sickbay.  
  
"Let's swing by the bridge for a moment, I'm curious to see who's on duty," Kathryn suggested as they walked into the turbolift.  
  
"Deck one," Chakotay ordered, as they were whisked up to the command center.  
  
The only noise the two could hear when the stepped quietly onto the darkened bridge was light snoring.  
  
Kathryn exchanged a look of incredulity with Chakotay as she gazed over the railing to her Captain's chair below. The young ensign was still snoring away.  
  
"Kamar!" Chakotay said, just loud enough to startle the ensign awake. He turned around to see the ship's two most superior officers regarding him.  
  
"Captain! C - Commander!" he stuttered in aggregation. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"  
  
"It's all right, Ensign. I only suggest that you don't let Lt. Commander Tuvok catch you. He's a stickler for the rules, you know." Kathryn could help but smile at the flustered young man as she turned and the two left the bridge.  
  
"Are you sure that was such a good idea, Kathryn? Kamar might fall asleep again." Chakotay said after the doors had shut. "Deck three," he said to the computer as they started descending.  
  
"After that wake up call, I'm not so sure. Besides," she said, pulling him close and whispering in his ear, "we've been relieved of duty, remember?"  
  
"Thank goodness for that," Chakotay said. "Dinner? I'm sure I've got enough rations."  
  
"Love to," Kathryn answered as the turbolift opened. She grasped his hand and gave him a blinding smile. "Ready?"  
  
"Ready," Chakotay replied, and together they stepped off the lift to start the beginning of their new lives.  
  
*~* Finished (finally!) *~* 


End file.
